The Jerry Douglas Band Premiere 'Hey Joe' Video with Rolling Stone

By: Aug. 06, 2017
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As excitement builds for the Friday, August 18 release of WHAT IF--the debut studio album from THE JERRY DOUGLAS BAND (Rounder Records)--they've partnered today (8/4) with ROLLING STONE COUNTRY to premiere the official music video for "Hey Joe."

Click here to watch the video shot just outside ofNashville, TN and directed by Adam Jones and Patrick Sheehan.
On WHAT IF, THE JERRY DOUGLAS BAND--led by 14-time Grammy Award-winning musician JERRY DOUGLAS--decisively merge jazz inclinations with the bluegrass, country, blues, swing, rock, and soul that DOUGLAS spent his life absorbing and performing, forging a sound that flies beyond the boundaries of anything he, or anyone else, has done before. The 11-track WHAT IF is now available for pre-order via Amazon here.
THE JERRY DOUGLAS BAND give "Hey Joe" a genre-bending arrangement. The song was also performed recently alongside bassist Daniel Kimbro during a live three-song session with Paste Magazine which can be viewed here.
Last month (7/20), No Depression premiered "2:19"--a cover of the Tom Waits gem--off the new album which had Tara Joan noting that "the new project merges jazz with bluegrass, country, blues, swing, rock, and soul on eleven tracks filled with bold arrangements and unexpected elements. One such song is Douglas' rendering of Tom Waits' '2:19.' A funky revelation, the song drips with soul courtesy of some dynamic horn-work and Douglas' bluesy vocals." (July 20, 2017) The arrangement is a funky revelation, dripping with soul and vocals that sound like they're rolling from the lips of a grizzled Beale Street bluesman killing it at 3 a.m., not a three-time Country Music Association Musician of the Year.
Though Douglas has previously recorded several of the songs on WHAT IF, he turns them inside out here in bold new arrangements filled with unexpected elements. For example, in 1992 he covered "Hey Joe," the Billy Roberts folk tune that became one of Jimi Hendrix's most beloved blues-rockers, as an uptempo bluegrass song. Here, it's recontextualized again with drums and fiddle--and horns instead of mandolin. He also radically reconfigures the album opener"Cavebop," originally recorded in 2002. This time, it contains the horns he always wanted it to have. "The first time I recorded it, we just played it as fast as we possibly could," says DOUGLAS. "This time, we made it a bit more sophisticated, with more of an arrangement. A lot of times, when you record songs, you don't really know 'em yet. I got another shot at this one."
As soon as he graduated from high school, DOUGLAS headed to Washington, D.C., to join Charlie Waller, Ricky Skaggs, and Doyle Lawson in the Country Gentlemen. He's since performed in so many incarnations; at one point, he counted membership in eight bands--simultaneously. His recent history includes his band the Earls of Leicester--his version of the Flatt and Scruggs band--with Shawn Camp, Charlie Cushman, Jeff White, Johnny Warren, and Barry Bales; their self-titled 2014 debut earned Douglas his 14th Grammy. He'd already picked up eight with Alison Krauss & Union Station, with whom he's closing out his second decade, and shared the Album of the Year win for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the film soundtrack that helped replant traditional roots music in the modern American psyche.
TRACKLISTING FOR WHAT IF:
"Cavebop"
"Unfolding"
"2:19"
"What If"
"Hey Joe"
"Battle Stick"
"Go Ahead and Leave"
"Butcher Boy"
"Freemantle"
"The Last Wild Moor"
"Hot Country 84.5"
For more information on THE JERRY DOUGLAS BAND, visit:
CATCH JERRY DOUGLAS ON TOUR:
DATE LOCATION VENUE
THU
8/10
New York City, NY City Winery
FRI
8/11
Turner Falls, MA Shea Theater
SAT
8/12
Bay Shore, NY Boulton Center
SUN
8/13
Ithaca, NY The Haunt
TUE
8/15
Newark, OH Thirty One West
THU
8/17
Ann Arbor, MI The Ark
FRI
8/18
St. Louis, MO Delmar Hall
SAT
8/19
Monticello, IL Prairie Sky Music Festival
SUN
8/20
Chicago, IL SPACE
TUE
8/22
Madison, WI Majestic Theatre
WED
8/23
Minneapolis, MN Dakota
THU
8/24
Kansas City, MO Knuckleheads
SAT
9/23
Franklin, TN Pilgrimage Festival
SUN
10/8
Roseland, VA Festy Experience
TUE
10/10
Charlotte, NC McGlohon Theatre
WED
10/11
Charleston, SC Charleston Music Hall
THU
10/12
Atlanta, GA City Winery
FRI
10/13
Asheville, NC The Orange Peel
FRI
10/27
Live Oak, FL Suwannee Music Park
SAT
11/4
Denver, CO L2 Church
SUN
11/5
Salt Lake City, UT State Room
MON
11/6
Boise, ID Egyptian Theatre
WED
11/8
Seattle, WA Benaroya Hall
THU
11/9
Portland, OR Alberta Rose Theatre
SAT
11/11
San Francisco, CA Slim's
MON
11/13
Hollywood, CA Troubadour
TUE
11/14
Phoenix, AZ MIM-Musical Instrument Museum


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